Set the right starting price
$0.99 is the best starting price, as it draws people in to bid who otherwise wouldn’t, and items will almost never finish at such a low price. In a brief survey, auctions with the lowest starting prices generate the most interest. Therefore, setting a low starting price not only encourages healthy bidding, it also raises the perceived value and the final closing price.
DO NOT make your starting price lower than you are willing to sell you item for, unless you have a reserve for a higher amount. Most likely at least half the time, you will be selling items for the initial starting price. A reserve is your best bet if you believe that too high a starting bid will prevent you from having any sales, but it can also be a turn-off for some buyers. However, do set a minimum price for the item that you will be willing to accept, and which is realistic.
Since you have learnt how to do research and find out the average selling price in my previous post, you won’t have to worry about your item selling for too little, you should have no problem getting what you want for it. If you haven’t, refer to my previous post, “Research before you list”. Anyway, don’t worry too much about setting a starting price, if the bids are way too low, you can always withdraw the listing before the auction ends, but the listing fee is still chargeable. This method isn’t a good practice to repeat many times, thus, only use it as a last resort. However, there are bids placed in the last few minutes, why not hold on to it if your listing received plenty of interest?
Reminder: People always don’t pay attention to the listing fees when they set the starting price. They either totally forget about it, or perhaps they think the fees don’t matter. This is totally wrong. You better change that if you used to be like that. Let me show you why we should pay attention to the listing fees involved. For example, if you start your item out at $50.00 instead of $49.99, you unintentionally incur an additional $1.20 fee. This amount may seem tiny, but what if you list 10 items a day? It costs you $12 additional. This can definitely be prevented by lowering the price one cent, thus, study the eBay fees schedule regularly and be more alert to fee changes.
5 comments:
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thank, tis aticle is really helpful
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most welcome, I hope the info. helps.
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I usually have items in two groups: those worth too much to play with, and those that I can risk. If you cant risk it, selling a camera for example, you should set a min. price that you would break even with.
But an item like shoes or gloves, try selling them for .01$. This puts them at the top of the price list and gets far more viewers. Often an item listed for .01 will make more money in the end than something listed for $10. Just increase the shipping to cover your bet a bit. If you want to sell shoes: sell them for $.01 with 13.75 shipping. You will likely get the selling price up to about 15 - 20. That is now 35 total... not so bad. And yes, shipping is always used to generate extra money. Dont pretend it is not. It is just part of how things go on ebay. Many people sell items with a profit already in the shipping. Iraqi Dinars, for example, often sell for .01 with enough shipping to already make money even if bids never get higher. That way you cant lose.on
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And yes I should add, that with small items setting the lowest price (.01) saves you listing fees. That is important when items are sold with thin profit margins.
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R2K, wow, I totally agree with you, $0.01 strategy does work most of the time. Thank you so much for sharing the golden tips.
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