eBay – Best Conducting Auction

 

Introduction

If you want E-Bay to be your primary job for making money you must running multiple, simultaneous auctions, the more the better. Some retailers are running hundreds of auctions a week. So, for those who want to use eBay more productively, this article covers the handling of multiple auctions. For people who will run only one auction at a time, this article will also cover general auctioning strategies.

                            

When to publish?

 

The timing of your ad is pretty important. You do not enter an auction when it is convenient for you if you want to generate the most bidding action. You enter an auction so that it ends at a time when the most potential bidders will be online to pay attention to it.

E.g. if you think the most potential bidders will be online between 4 PM and 10 PM on Saturday evening, start your auction so that's when it ends.

This is easy to do because the auction will end at the exact time you entered it, either three days, five days, seven days, or ten days later. In other words, if you want a three-day auction to end Saturday at 9:30 PM, enter it at 9:30 PM on Wednesday evening.

Needless to say, there are complications. For instance, 7:30 PM where?

There is a three-hour difference between New York and Los Angeles.

There is an eight-hour difference between London and Los Angeles.

It is up to you to define the correct timing according to your target bidder location.

 

Are there any good times during  the month?

Several days before payday (first and fifteenth) might work well in theory. And several days after payday may be prime selling time too.

 

Best Time of Year

Tax time in April is always a tough time for most offline retailers. It's probably not a good time to auction your item on eBay either.

The Christmas season, of course, is prime time to sell merchandise, especially an item that makes a good gift (just about anything).

For the mail-order catalogs, the Christmas season starts in September or October. The closer to Christmas, the more success you'll likely have on eBay.

 

The Right Time

In truth, the right time depends on the item and the circumstances. A dozen authors can voice a dozen different opinions and you might even be able to get general statistics from eBay, but in the end each item has its own set of potential bidders that may or may not follow the normal bidding patterns in regard to timing.

 

Statistics

eBay Magazine, now defunct, published useful sales statistics on eBay auctions. There is no other reliable source that I know of other than eBay itself which publishes general statistics at its annual conference in June. However, for a monthly fee you can access statistics kept by Andale, an auction management service. Such statistics are specific to individual products and can be very useful.

 

How long should auction be?

 

Before answering this question you should ask yourself: what's the purpose? If your primary purpose is advertising, the longest auction (ten-day auction) is for you (Yes, a lot of sellers use the eBay as stage for advertising).

You're up the longest time for the least trouble and get the most exposure for the dollar.

What if you want to get the most bidders? The theory goes that the ten-day auction is the best because your auction is up longer and attracts more potential bidders. 

 

Another class of bidders, however, those without patience, will more likely bid on an auction with a shorter deadline. Whether because of circumstances or personal character, they can't wait. A ten-day auction goes well beyond their horizon. That's why Buy It Now has become popular.

A general rule is that the more popular the item, the shorter the auction. In other words, a popular item (e.g., a recognized brand) will bring plenty of bidders in a short time.

An obscure item needs all the time it can get to attract bidders.

 

Pricing

 

Presumably, your objective is to get the highest possible bid. To do so, you usually have to inspire some competitive bidding. How do you price your auction?

 

Low Minimum with a Reserve

 

The thing to keep in mind is that in the end, a bidder will bid only so much for an item. The price you set at the beginning has little effect on this reality. Low prices probably attract rookie eBay bidders, but rookies soon catch on that a low price in the beginning does not necessarily mean a low price at the end of the auction. Once rookie bidders realize their initial misconceptions, they look for signs that a seller is being reasonable.

A reserve, until it is met, is a hidden minimum allowable bid and doesn't tell bidders anything simply because it is hidden. If you use a reserve, bidders don't know whether you're for real or just another unreasonable seller. Many bidders will not bid on an auction with a reserve. Many auctions do not get any bidders. The low minimum adds an aura of unreality that may not be inviting to potential bidders.

So, when does it make sense to use a low minimum bid and a reserve?

When you want to test the market. You're not sure of the probable high bid, and you want the market (the bidders) to decide for you. If you set a high reserve, you won't sell the item and won't learn anything. But if you set a low reserve and get bids over the reserve, you may get a strong indication of the market value. You can use that knowledge in your next auction.

 

High Minimum Bid Without a Reserve

 

If you want to maximize the high bid, do your homework. Research what identical or similar items have sold for in past auctions. Chances are you're not going to get a bid that's higher. So, set your auction with a minimum bid (no reserve) that attracts potential bidders.

 It must be high enough to live with should there be an abnormally low number of bidders and an abnormally low winning bid. It should be low enough to lure potential bidders to make a bid. It sends a message that you're serious about selling the item.

People selling items at retail on eBay are realistic about their prices. They have to be, or they couldn't stay in business. You compete with them. Thus, unrealistic pricing just wastes your time.

Research the market first. If you're not happy with the potential high bid, sell your item some other way. Or don't sell it.

Your main goal is to convey the message to people that you're a reasonable seller. They can buy from you at a market price and deal with a reasonable person to complete the transaction. Everyone is looking for a steal. Everyone finds one occasionally. But most of the time people pay the market price for merchandise, and that's something they're willing to do.

You can usually find the eBay market price in your research.Your auction setup, your advertising, your reputation, and the services you offer bidders all work to convey a message to potential bidders. That message should spell reasonable. The high minimum bid that's still lower than the market price is a good way to attract bidders because it seems reasonable.

 

Research

The most important procedure you can use as a selling strategy is research. Research the market value of the item you want to sell. Use past eBay auctions to do an appraisal. Use offline data. Use list price as a reference for items that aren't very old. Use whatever reliable information you can find.

To use the eBay archives, go to a category. Narrow the search for an item by placing a word(s) in the search function. On the left-hand side (or advance search) a link Completed Items will appear. This is an excellent means of doing your value research.

 

Featured Auctions

For a substantial extra fee, you can have your auction featured. For high cost you can have your auction featured on eBay. For mid price you can have your auction featured in its category.

The featured auction appears in the Browse section on eBay or at the top of its category. It also appears in the regular auction listings in bold.

Is it worth it?

Probably not for most items. When potential bidders look for something specific, they probably don't look in the featured sections. Impulse items, however, may sell well in the featured sections. Many people visiting the featured sections are just out browsing around looking for something, anything, to buy.

If an item is difficult to search for (difficult to identify with keywords) and it's on a listing with a huge number of auctions, the featured section may be your best shot at selling it. If you are selling to novice eBay users, many of whom do not know how to search fectively, you might have some luck with the featured sections. And if you are selling a popular consumer item, you may sell well in the featured sections too.

Changing Auctions

 

You can always change your auction ad (Description). The change will appear tacked on the bottom of your auction ad. However, don't make changes that will upset bidders. You may get nasty email.

Notify High Bidder and Set Deadline 

 

As the seller, don't ever leave things ambiguous. Notify the high bidder (buyer) what to do and when to do it in complete detail. If the buyer doesn't meet deadlines, send reminders via email. Many people seem to agree, if you don't get any reaction from the buyer after two reminders (the initial email message plus two reminder messages reasonably spaced), consider the auction canceled.

It's even better to announce a payment deadline in your auction ad. That way a buyer has little grounds for claiming that your deadline is unreasonable.

 

Don't Flood the Market

 

Need to auction something, but there is a current auction offering an identical item? No reason to flood the market. Wait until the current auction is close to completion and then put your identical item up for auction.

 

Follow-Up

 

Systematic follow-up is an important part of your auctioning activity.

There is a special type of follow-up, however, that can add retail sales. If you have additional items to sell, you can use the auction follow-up to cross sell; that is, advertise your other items.

The more similar the other items are to the item purchased, the more effective such advertising will be.

You can enter multiple auctions on eBay by hand, but it's tedious and takes a lot of time. The more auctions you create, the more you have to keep track of. Pretty quickly things get out of control - There's no reason to suffer such a demanding routine. A desktop database can make your life easier. What should you include in your database? That's a matter of personal style and organization. Whatever works for you. You need to build your own system based on your particular situation.

You can use some spread sheet, database or third party tool to manage it (also from e-Bay)

 

Note: As I am not native English speaker (and writer) I assume that there are some grammar mistakes in my article. I will appreciate if someone can review and correct these mistakes

   Thanks - David Tip.