How to Avoid Failure on Your eBay Auctions

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How to Avoid Failure on Your eBay Auctions 

Many first time sellers have one thing in common –  they fail. Many of them fail time and time again,  never understanding what is going wrong. They do  hours of research looking for the perfect item to sell,  get the auction set up, and wait for the bidding to  begin. Hours go by and no bids are placed. Days go  by, and there are still no bids – or there are very low  bids. Finally the auction ends, and it turns out to be  a total failure. Considering the huge number of sellers  who run eBay auctions, there are specific things you  must do, and specific things you must not do if you  are to be successful.   There are many reasons why auctions fail. The most  common reason is that the item is not in high  demand. This problem can be avoided by doing the  necessary research to determine which items sell  well, and which items should be avoided. This  research takes a great deal of time – but in the end,  you will find that it is time well spent.  Another reason for eBay failure is pricing. No matter  what your reserve price is, your opening bid price  should never be more than $50 or so. This is how you  will attract potential bidders to your auction. If you  set that opening bid too high, most people won’t  even click the link to read the description for your  item. Another pricing problem is lack of research.  Before you set your reserve price, you must  determine what the item is really worth, and the price  similar items have sold for in past eBay auctions.  Poorly written descriptions are another cause of  failed auctions. Poor grammar and misspelled words  drive people away. Failing to post a picture of the  item will also keep people from visiting your auction  page. Make sure that your description is well written.  This is essentially your ‘sales copy.’  Shipping prices scare people away from auctions if  they are too high. Find the lowest shipping prices  that you can find, and consider paying for the  shipping yourself if it won’t cut into your profits too  much. Do not charge handling fees.  Offer great ‘customer service’ for all of your auctions,  and ask your buyers to give you feedback. If the  items that you sell are everything that you said they  would be, and you offer great customer service, you  can expect wonderful feedback – and this  feedback will help a great deal in your future auctions.