Expert: Marvinator - 2/12/2004

Question
I'M NEW TO EBAY AND I HAVE BEEN READING EVERYTHING I CAN FIND. IN YOUR OPINION IS THERE A CERTAIN TIME AND DAY TO SELL? ALSO I'VE PUT UP 2 AUCTIONS AND DIDN'T GET ANY BIDS WHAT CAN I DO TO INCREASE BIDS?  I HAVE A YAMAHA RECORDER I AM PUTTING UP AND I HAVE BEEN WATCHING AUCTIONS FOR THIS ITEM AND IT ALWAYS DOES RATHER WELL BETWEEN 175.00 AND 300.00 IM AFRAID IF I PUT IT UP WITH NO RESERVE I WILL ONLY GET A DOLLAR FOR IT, SAME WITH A RARE JORDAN THROWBACK JERSEY HOW DO YOU AVOID THIS? I KNOW THESE QUESTIONS ARE SUBJECTIVE BUT AN OPINION OTHER THAN MY OWN IS APPRECIATED. I WANT TO LEARN WITHOUT LOSING MY SHIRT NO PUN INTENDED. ANY ADVICE WOULD BE APPRECIATED.  

Answer
I'm always glad to meet someone that is open to advice and new ideas. With that in mind, may I make a few suggestions and offer some insight?  First, allow me to point out that although you may find it easier to use all caps in writing, to many it is very hard to read and on the internet it is considered shouting.  If you write your auctions in all caps, it is a signpost that you may not be as professional as you could be.  That said, let's examine what I think is the hardest part of selling on ebay, that is, the setting of pricing and the decision of when to start them.

When writing up an auction I usually don't select the starting price until I get to that question on the auction layout form.  It's always the last thing I decide, but it can be one of the most important.  Where you start an auction in many regards, will decide where it ends up.  I usually tell all new sellers that you should never set an opening bid at any less than what you will take for the item should it sell.   (This is without a reserve.  We will examine reserves further down.)  If you set the opening price of a gold ring at $1.00, and you get one bid, you better be ready to sell that item for $1.00.  But we all know that if you set a price too high, you may not get any bids at all.   So the best advice is to not go any less than you are willing to get. Later, once you become experienced with the items you're selling, you'll be able to tell which items can be started lower, knowing they will be bid up higher.

As for reserves, this is a decision that is also not easily made.  A reserve is usually the kiss of death on any item.  There are some items, however, which the seller must protect himself on, and therefore must utilize a reserve.  What I recommend is that you put the reserve amount in the auction description.  This informs people that although you are willing to start the auction lower, (at say $5.00) you know that the item is worth more, and are expecting it to sell for that amount.  The hard part of this is not putting the reserve out of reach.  This means doing your research.  As an example, you have a Jersey which you feel is worth $300, but doing some research on signed Jersey's on Ebay you may find that the highest selling price for an item of this type is only $150.  You must now decide whether you will put the reserve at $300, $150, or even $100 (or whether you will put the Jersey in storage and wait a few more years.)  The rule of thumb I try to keep in mind is "On Ebay, nothing will sell for it's high end value."  YOU may think the Jersey is worth $300, and your friends may think it's worth $300, but in the end, unless you can convince the bidders that the Jersey is worth $300, you won't get it. Ebay is a buyer's realm.

So, how do those sellers make the large dollars you've heard about?  The good ones are already established as sellers and they have an established clientelle.  With Millions of auctions on Ebay at any given time, you are going to have to be extremely good to get people to view your auction. Moreover, you have to get them to bid! And that's the secret!  Not only do you have to get someone to click on your auction, you have to get them excited enough to bid!   So, how do you do that?

The title is where you get someone to click on your auction.  Use as many descriptive words as you can and stay away from such words as "LQQK!" and "WOW" and even "BID NOW".  You want the title to give as much information as possible and to also get the casual viewer to become a possible bidder.  COLLECTIBLE is good, but tells the casual bidder that it may be overpriced. Try to describe just the item and pertinent information, but at the same time, try to include those words which a surfer might put into a search.  (IE; No one puts "Look" or "Wow" into a search.) In addition, there are some terms which may be good to put in your auction which helps the viewer discern the differences between YOUR item and a similar offered item from another seller.  Anagrams such as OOAK (One Of A Kind) OOP (Out of Print, Out of Production), MIB (Mint In Box) NOS (New Old Stock).  Check the auctions of similar items and see how you can set yours ahead of the pack.   This means you might put: JOHN DOE CHICAGO BULLS JERSEY SIGNED '98 OOAK instead of JOHN DOE THROWAWAY JERSEY.  In the first example, we can see all the points which make this auction worth a click/look.   

There are a handful of auction add-ons which may or may not make your item sell.  These are Bold title ($1.00), Highlight ($5.00), Featured Plus ($19.95) and Home Page Featured (39.95), along with Gift Icon (.25) and Gallery (.25).  Whether or not any of these actually help in selling your item depends a lot on the number of similar items already on auction.  If there are relatively few similar items, you may not need to even consider them.  In addition, a Gallery pic is not really needed for items that don't photograph well.  A jersey may be photographed well, but since it's a widely recognizable item, spending more money on your listing just to put it in the Gallery may be overkill.  

Next, you have to make your item SELL.  The way you do that is with a good description and only a modicum of hype.  If there is a story behind the item, you can include that too.  A good description will get someone to actually consider BIDDING on your item.  The best descriptions I've seen are divided into three sections. The first section basically expands on the title, giving any further information about it's collectibility, fan appreciation and value.  The second paragraph would be any history you have about this - that information which sets YOUR item apart from the rest of the items on Ebay.  Lastly, a section which gives STATS.  Size, color, manufacturer, etc all laid out in bullet fashion.  Quick and easy to read.  Avoid a description where it's all one paragraph and avoid putting anything in your auction which clutter the page.  Music, extraneous graphics and animations slow down the load of the page, and will actually chase people away.  Avoid bright colors as they are hard on the eyes.  

The simply layouts offered by Ebay only cost .10 and can be an easy and very inexpensive way of making your item even more attractive.  But before you choose and start spending more on a layout, graphics, or features, remember that a bit of homework can go a long way in getting you the information that you need in order to make the right decisions.  Research is the one thing that can't be done after the fact.

Lastly, you asked about which day of the week to start/end an auction.  This cannot be answered easily as some items do better on different days of the week.  If you sell clothing, you may actually do better during the day when women are most likely to bid.  Tools may do better at night.  Other items may do better on Weekends.  This is part of the research that goes into selling.  Looking up similar items you can see a pattern as to which items get more bids, and what day of the week on which they end.  I personally like my auctions to run a full week regardless of what day they end, as I want them visible over a weekend.  I aim my items at the final day because most bids will come on the final two days of an auction.  I don't recommend 10 day auctions as they are listed too long, cost too much and are difficult to schedule so that they end on the right day.