How to get into Auction Success! If you were to look through eBay, or any other online auction site for that matter, you would find that many people make some very basic mistakes. And, they repeat these mistakes over and over again. As indicated in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" with a little common sense these mistakes are completely preventable. So to prevent you from making these very same mistakes I have put together the Top Ten Tips For Auction Success.
10. Shipping Always state what your shipping price will be. And, Do Not tries to rip off your buyers by inflating the shipping price to increase your profit. Believe it or not, people do have a fair idea of what shipping costs should be. If they feel you are inflating your shipping price they will not bid on your item and may not look at any of your other auctions either from fear of being ripped off.
9. Customer Support You must respond to all emails regarding your auctions. Yes, responding to emails is time consuming. But, if you don't, that potential bidder will look else ware for the product and you will have lost yourself a customer.
8. Reserve Price Do your research on the price for your item. If you must use a reserve price keep it real. If you over price your item you will not get as many bids. And, while all good marketers know there is a time and place for the Reserve Auction, you may actually get more bids using no reserve pricing at all. Do your research to help you make this decision.
7. Item Condition You must let bidders know what condition your item is in. Is it new and in its packaging, or used but like new condition. Does it have any imperfections they should be made aware of.. Potential bidders will want to know what condition your item is in before making any bids.
6. Terms This could come under the heading Customer Service. If you have terms on your auction page that read something like this "Not Responsible For Item Once Shipped" or "Item Sold As Is" you will lessen the number of bidders for that auction. Be a responsible eBayer, have insurance on the item that your buyer can purchase. And be sure to have some sort of guarantee on your products.
5. Feedback One of the most important parts of your eBay Business. Feedback is a method eBay uses to allow buyers and sellers to record their experiences with each other. Then, others can check out the feedback of any eBayer they wish to deal with, to see if there has been any negative comments left. Therefore, it is extremely important to keep your feedback rating positive.
4. Auction Start/Close Time You must plan your auction start/close time around the bidders you wish to attract to your auction. If the product you are selling appeals to the working woman, the best time to start/end your auction would be in the evening or on the weekend. Always create a profile on your product and what group of the population you are selling to.
3. Item Description Not enough information or too much rambling of information will discourage people from bidding. So too will too many typos. Your item description must be clean and concise. Succinctly provide all the information required to describe the item sufficiently and create buyer interest.
2. Image You need to use an image on your auction page. Remember a picture is worth a 1000 words! Potential bidders will want to see what the item looks like before they make a bid. With digital cameras, being so affordable these days adding an image to your auction page is easier than ever. But, make sure the image is clear and well lit to show its detail or any imperfections it may have. Also, keep the image at a reasonable pixel size so your auction page doesn't take too long to load.
1. Headlines This is the most important issue for getting more bidders to your auction page. You must include words that people will search on eBay. And, you must make your headline enticing, so potential bidders will click it. If you are selling an antique make-up table a headline saying old vanity table would not pull in a lot of bidders. But, if you said something like "Vintage Vanity Table - Mint Condition - Collector's Item" not only would you get more potential bidders to view your auction, you would also be using words people would search eBay for. Your auction title would appear in searches for Vintage, Vanity Tables, and Collectors Items. Therefore, allowing even more potential bidders to see your headline.
And let's imagine you've used short durations to get your auctions near the top of the results, can you make your auction stand out from the crowd?
Well, yes you can, but unfortunately it means you have to give eBay some more of your hard earned money.
What we're talking about here are eBay's listing upgrades.
Sometimes this can pay off. This is especially true for high priced items.
Gallery This is probably the most basic of features. It shows your photo on the search results page as well as inside on the item's description page. This is usually always worth having, unless your item is of very low value.
Current Cost eBay.co.uk 15p eBay.com 35c
Subtitle Subtitle enables you to convey pertinent information that you couldn't squeeze into the auction title. Useful for technical items where the auction title isn't long enough to hold the key features of the item. Also useful for selling phrases, and offers, such as free shipping.
Current Cost eBay.co.uk 35p eBay.com 50c
Bold Helps your auction to stand out on search results pages, although costly for low value items.
Current Cost eBay.co.uk 75p eBay.com $1
Border This places your auction within a coloured box on search results pages. It can be effective, but again is of questionable value on low price items.
Current Cost eBay.co.uk N/A eBay.com $3
Highlight Puts your auction within an eye-catching coloured band on search results pages. Useful for high priced items.
Current Cost eBay.co.uk ?2.50 eBay.com $5
Featured Plus! This shows your item at the top of the page in the Featured Items section of search results. It will also appear in the Featured Items section to those eBayers who browse by category. This can pay for itself with an item that's worth more than about ?55 ($100) and getting a decent number of bids.
Current Cost eBay.co.uk ?9.95 eBay.com $19.95
Gallery Featured This shows your item first when someone chooses to view items using the ?Picture Gallery? view. In my experience not many people use this view, but the feature might be useful for some kinds of items.
Current Cost eBay.co.uk ?15.95 eBay.com $19.95
Home Page Featured Although the ultimate in listing upgrades, the value of Home Page Featured can be questionable. This shows your auction title in a special display on eBay's home page, however, eBay doesn't guarantee that purchasing the upgrade will result in this happening! What you're buying is an eBay "best endeavours" to give you Home Page exposure.
If you feel you could pull a lot of buyers into your auction through the first four or five words of your title, by all means try it. You also get Featured Plus! feature as part of this upgrade. Note the disparity in this upgrade cost if you use UK eBay.
Current Cost eBay.co.uk ?49.95 eBay.com $39.95
Finally, as with many elements of eBay trading, no results can be guaranteed. You must test and test and test. Try different upgrades and keep records of the results you achieve.
You might just find the ideal combination for your auctions.
Both Surjeet Kumar Khatri & Brian Mcgregor are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Brian Mcgregor has sinced written about articles on various topics from Bird Flu, Web Development and How to Sell on Ebay. Brian McGregor is an internet entrepreneur specializing in eBay. He publishes the eBay Auction Newsletter - . Get traffic to your sit. Brian Mcgregor's top article generates over 22200 views. to your Favourites.