Once you prepare to sell items on eBay, you take a different perspective to categories than you do as a buyer. Your goal is to find the category (or categories) in which you're most likely to find people who are interested in bidding or buying what you've put online. You want to find those ideal buyers who not only like what you're offering but who've simply got to have it to complete their collection. These are people who probably know more than you do about your item, who collect similar items aswell.
Do a search for items that seem similar to yours and see in what categories they appear. You aren't limited to listing your item in one category. In fact, if you think your item could fit well in two different categories, you'll find it cost-effective to list in two places. You pay two listing fees as well as any upgrade fees such as Bold or Gallery. (You can't list real estate in two categories, however. ) If you are at all apprehensive about putting something up for sale, do a test. you'll notice that one of the categories in the list is simply called Test. This enables you to put your sale online without having other users bid on it. It's a place where you can make sure your images appear the way you want and that you have used the Sell Your Item form correctly. You'll find a complete list of categories, plus the number of items currently up for sale in each one, at http://listings. ebay.com/pool1/listings/list/ overview. html.
Create Your Descriptions Once you've gathered details about what you're selling and taken some photos, you can begin filling out the Sell Your Item form and actually creating auction listings. You only need to click the Sell button in the toolbar that appears on nearly all eBay pages to access the form. (You may be prompted to sign in with your User ID or password first, unless you're already logged in. ) The form itself contains tips on how to provide good information. But just for good measure, here are a few more tips.
Your Auction Title The title of your auction listing is critical. When shoppers conduct searches on eBay and come up with lists of auction items, they'll come up with your title as well as others. Make your title no longer than five or six words. Be sure to pack as much relevant information in those five or six words as possible. The more information you can put in, the better your chances of selling. Don't waste valuable space using tired terms such as L@@K or !!Wow!! which are overused and have no effect on buyers. Try to put in dates and brand names if you can: rather than saying "Beautiful Pottery Vase," say "Pink Roseville Pottery Vase 1934. " Also, remember to be honest: if something is a reproduction rather than an antique, don't bury that fact at the bottom of a description. Lack of forthrightness will turn buyers off; they may never look at your auctions again.
Category As I mentioned, eBay presents you with hundreds of different categories. Look for items that are similar to yours. Also, try to imagine the kind of person who might want what you have to sell, and try to envision how it might be used. This might suggest the category where such an individual might look for it.
Picture URL URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, a standard address that enables anyone with a Web browser to locate an object or Web site that's on the Internet. You get the URL for your image from the site where you have stored your image. This can be eBay's own Picture Services or another photo hosting service.
Minimum Bid A minimum bid is a starting point. It's like the auctioneer in an auction saying, "Bidding will start at one dollar. Do I hear two dollars?" It's generally a good idea to pick a small minimum bid, such as $1, for the starting point. Many bidders pick an amount that represents the very least they're willing to accept for an item as the minimum bid. It's not at all uncommon to see items that start at $100. But you'll often notice that such auctions attract no bidders at all. Sellers are likely to turn bidders off by setting a sizeable minimum. Let the bidders feel they're getting a bargain when they start out; you set a reserve price to ensure that an item won't sell for less than a certain price.
The Description On the Internet, unlike other media, information sells. The more you can say about a sales item, the more likely you'll generate interest in it. The most experienced sellers try to create descriptions that engage the viewer's imagination
- that induce viewers to imagine what that pair of gloves might feel like, or how they might use that automatic juicer, or how that old Ford Thunderbird would look in their driveway. Don't be reluctant to point out any flaws in what you are selling. You don't want bidders to discover flaws when they unpack the item. You want them to know exactly what they're getting
- and to know that you're an honest seller whom they can trust.
Use Listing Designer A feature that appeared as I was writing this article, Listing Designer, is accessed from page 3 of the Sell Your Item form. It's an interactive utility that lets you pick a theme and a layout for your item. There is an extra charge of ten cents for each item for which you use Listing Designer. However, many sellers will find this a bargain because Listing Designer has one big plus: it shields sellers from having to know HyperText Markup Language (HTML). HTML is the set of markup instructions that lets you createWeb pages. Without using Listing Designer, the only way to format auction listings is to write the HTML by hand and paste it into the Sell Your Item form. '), (213, '2007-05-01', 'Internet and online', 'Auctions', 'Monitor Your Sales Activity on eBay', 'Ranga A. ', '
Once your sale goes online, you'll probably want to keep an eye on it just to see when the bids come in, and to check out exactly who bids on it. This is when all your hard work pays off. You'll need to check your e-mail in order to field questions from interested customers. If you receive several questions that are in a similar vein, you may want to edit your description to include the answer as additional information. Even while your sale is ongoing, you can change the item's category or add additional text or photos any time you want.
Can You Edit Your Description? It's a good idea to read your description closely and make sure it's accurate before you post the listing online. That's because changing your description isn't a straightforward matter
- at least, not after bids have been received on that item. After all, the people who place bids might take offense if the description changes and other bidders can act based on new information they didn't have originally. The Adding to Your Item Description page mentioned earlier only lets you add to a description. If you want to actually edit an auction listing, click the revise link on that auction page. This lets you change everything about the auction. However, if bids have been placed on that item, clicking "revise" will not let you edit the actual auction listing unless you cancel all the bids. If you don't want to cancel any bids, you can only add to the description, not change the original.
Close the Deal When the sale ends, in some ways a new round of work begins. In this case the work ends with a couple of big rewards, however: you receive payment, and you get positive feedback for your good customer service. In order to get those rewards,you need to begin by contacting your high bidder or buyer promptly
- within the hour after the sale ends, if you can, but at least within a day. eBay sends the buyer a stock e-mail notification that the sale has ended and the person is the high bidder. You should follow quickly with your own e-mail, in which you congratulate the winner and provide them with directions for paying you. You'll need to find out how the buyer wants the item shipped (if you offer two different shipping options, such as Priority Mail and Parcel Post). You'll also need to know where the buyer lives so you can calculate the exact shipping cost
- virtually all shippers charge based on weight, the size of the package, and the distance to be shipped. After payment comes in, before you celebrate, send out an e-mail acknowledgement to your bidder to let them know that you have received the check, money order, PayPal account transfer, or credit card payment. More importantly, you need to tell the customer when you're shipping out the merchandise. It's a good business practice to send out your merchandise the same day that the payment arrives, or the day the payment clears your bank. (Most banks will let you know if a check is cleared either by phone or in person. ) Try not to wait more than a week until after the payment clears, or you risk havingyour buyer leave you negative feedback.
Resell an Item Hopefully, most of the items you put up for sale on eBay will actually go to a bidder or Buy It Now buyer. However, you'll probably put up some items that don't attract any bids at all. That doesn't mean you need to give up selling the item. You attract more (or higher) bids at a later date by providing better images, changing the title or description, or going with No Reserve
- removing the reserve price altogether. You can relist your item if the following applies:
- You didn't receive any bids on a regular auction and you did not hold a Dutch auction.
- Fewer than thirty days have passed since the closing date of the first auction.
- You didn't receive any bids that met your reserve price if you originally held a reserve price auction. eBay does charge you a second insertion fee if you relist your item, but if your item sells the second time you put it up for sale, eBay will refund you the second insertion fee. (But if it doesn't sell the second time, you still need to pay the secondinsertion fee. )
Paying eBay's Seller Fees How does eBay make the money that made it one of the most successful e-commerceoperations in recent years? It makes money from people like you who sell items onits site and who are charged fees. You need to pay a fee before the sale, called aninsertion fee, just to list an item for auction. You must pay the insertion fee whetheror not the transaction is successfully completed.
After your item sells, you pay eBay a commission called a Final Value Fee. The final value fee isn't a flat fee, but is calculated based on the final sale price or the type of item sold.
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09052010
1. The importance of time in eBay sales
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