Running A Successful Ebay Auction

Ebay's outrageous and unique idea of auction format selling has been fascinating marketing professors across the globe for 20 years. Millions of auctions have been tested and retested. Determining a "perfect" ebay auction strategy is probably impossible.

Out of all this research, though, we have learned a few basics that usually lead to successful ebay auctions.

A few tricks of getting the most money from your ebay auctions:

1.)Pay attention to when the item will end. It will end at exactly the same time as you list it in one, three, seven or ten days. Most bidding happens in the last 24 hours of a listing. If your item ends when most of your bidders are sleeping, you lose out on the ending excitement and bidding.

Consider your audience when you decide your ebay auction ending time. Video games will do better ending in the mid to late evening and office supplies might do better ending in the afternoon.

Sunday afternoon and evenings are known to bring in the highest money and Tuesdays and Saturdays are known as slower ebay days.

If you do your best work at odd hours, pay the extra dime to have your auction end at a good time.

2.)Have a Good Title. This seems obvious, but to get traffic to your ebay auction, use only keywords in your title. The title is what people search on. You have just 55 characters in your title, every one matters. Don't waste characters with words like "cute" or "must see." No one searches ebay auctions on cute. If you have a word that might be spelled two ways, spell it both ways. If you have a number use the digit and spell out the number. Think like a buyer searching through ebay auctions. If your item is new, please state that. I have seen many ebay sellers skip this money making word. For every buyer willing to click through to see if you item is new there are ten who will pass it by.

If there is something you must say and it isn't a keyword and doesn't fit into the 55
characters, buy the subtitle for $1.50. Subtitles are good investments and make your ebay auction stand out.

3.)Take good pictures and write good copy. You want to answer all possible questions up front in your ebay auction. Use a photo editor (I like photobucket and the price is right--free) and insert extra pictures into your ebay listing for free. Your pictures should describe the item as if there is no text and your text should describe the item as if there is no picture. Take the time to write a great description. Measure the item and give the measurements.

Don't worry too much about templates or graphics. Your ebay buyers are interested in what you are selling, not in how pretty you can make an ebay listing page.

4.)Proofread Please! Dozens of expensive items are given away every week on ebay because of typos. Double and triple check your spelling. There are ebay sellers who make a living buying and reselling things from ebay auctions that are listed with mistakes. Don't let your item be one of their finds.

5.)Price your item right. If it is "hot" and a great seller on ebay, you probably want to start it low. Thousands of sellers who have launched millions of ebay auctions will tell you that a low starting price leads to a higher ending price. You are building excitement. Once you get a bid on your ebay auction, your auction gets a lot more attention than an auction with no bids. People who place bids are invested and want to win. Your goal is to have as many bidders as possible fighting over your ebay auction.

Many sellers, especially new sellers, get nervous with this ebay auction strategy. You can get burned. If you cannot take that chance, list it at the lowest possible amount you will take.

The exception to the low start price strategy comes if you have a slow moving or highly unusual item. In those cases, you might want to try it out on auction at a price close to what you expect and then move it into your ebay store or put it up in a fixed price format if it doesn't sell.

6.)If you are putting several similar items up for auction, list them on different days. You do not want to compete with yourself. Since most bidding happens in the first and last day of ebay auctions, maybe stagger them with each starting on a consecutive day. That way if a bidder "loses" the first item, he can go on to win another. It also gives bidders a chance to bid on all of your auctions. If they end only minutes apart, they may not have the time or inclination to bid on both.

Ebay auctions are exciting. They add anticipation and uncertainty to the selling and buying process. Using simple ebay auction strategies can make your ebay auctions successful.