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Ebay Selling - How to market your item on eBay

June 6th, 2006

Ebay selling can be a rewarding business or part time income opportunity.  You can improve your chances for selling your item for top dollar by how you present your auction listing.

Pictures are the number one way to sell your item.  Without good quality easy to see pictures your item could be overlooked or undervalued by the buyers.  If you have a white sheet that is wrinkle free, you can use this as a back drop to the items that you are going to sell.  Make sure that you have adequate lighting and that you take pictures that are in focus.  Every computer monitor has different brightness levels and color tones.  So it is important to have generally lighter pictures so that all people will be able to see on their computer.  If color is involved describe the color in the text of the auction to explain the color.

If the item you are selling is dirty, clean it up first.  A cleaned item will get more attention and show of the value of the item.  If you are selling collectibles, make sure you are careful when you do clean the item. 

Don’t include items that are not included in the auction.  People may not understand it is not included and can be thought of as “misleading” even though you say it in the text of the auction that it is not included.  You may have wanted to demonstrate how the item works, this can sometimes be helpful, but try not to show other items if at all possible.

Include all the details about the item that you are selling.  Does it have any accessories that come with it?  Is it new in the box, used only once and works perfectly.  Is there any scratches or dents?  These are very important to the buyers to know this upfront.  Hiding important detail usually will end up hurting future sales on eBay by gaining an unnecessary negative feedback rating.

Shipping details and return policy should be easily viewed and read on the auction page.  If you specify all the terms, your customer is responsible for knowing the complete terms of the auction.  If they try to file a chargeback without returning the item in the specified time, you can be protected from losing that money.  Paypal does not usually side on the benefit of the seller, but the more that you spell out your terms the more leverage you have to win.

Don’t use annoyingly too big or too little fonts, flashing html or unnecessary images or cartoons in your sales pitch.  It doesn’t make the buyer confident in purchasing from you.  They will want to see that you are able to ship the item and that you have a good track record.  A good looking auction page that is neat and informative will improve the buyer’s confidence and should get you more bidders.

You can use third party auction seller’s systems or build your own html code to come up with professional looking auction listings.  Some of the online sites that help sellers are Andale and Marketworks.  These sites not only help in the design of the ad, they help automate the launching of the auctions, and they also will help in inventory, accounting, and shipping as well.  If you do any volume selling you should plan to use these auction tools to help.

Whether you are selling one item or many, you should focus on being as complete with the description of the item that you are selling.

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Nicole Wilson
Best Syndication