How to get higher prices when you're selling with online auctions....
 

Online auctions are a great way to make money.... All you need is something to sell! But you can definitely buy products (both new and used) in the "real world" and sell them online at a profit.... Before you do this, though, you should research what you think you can get for it online, by looking at current and past auctions for that item, so you don't pay too much when you're buying. Anyhow, it's a great (and relatively easy) way to make money....

Now, once you've got the basics underway, how do you get higher prices for your stuff? The results of a 3-year study of auctions of coins on ebay have just become available. The authors tells which factors make the price of the auction higher....

Here's my quick summary of the results, and there's a link to the full article at the end.... :)

Here are the items which can affect how high the bids are which your auction will attract....

• The Weekend Effect. Auctions on the weekend go for about 2% higher than auctions on weekdays. The reason why is because people are more willing to buy when they have more time to ponder the purchase, like they do on weekends compared to weekdays....
• The Photographic Effect. When an auction has an accompanying descriptive photograph, the final bid price is an average of 11.3% higher than similar items without pictures.
• The Reputation Effect. On ebay there is a system of rating your experience with a buyer or seller as positive or negative. New people start with no ratings whatsoever, and good sellers accumulate many positive ratings. A good rating on ebay increases the average final bid of an item by 6.8%, clearly because people feel more comfortable and safer purchasing from someone once they have a lot of positive feedback.
• The Auction Length Effect. Longer auctions tend to also get higher final bids, but this seems to be a diminishing effect with time, as the market matures....

I sell things on ebay myself, and I agree with these things (though I haven't tested the weekend effect, the other three items I've tested myself).

If you'd like to read the full article, please click on the link below.... :)

- Dien Rice


Experts Reveal Online Auction Secrets

Re: How to get higher prices when you're selling with online auctions....
 

> Online auctions are a great way to make
> money.... All you need is something to sell!

Actually, you need something to sell in any business...it's just that online auctions are a venue that provide the tools to facilitate the transaction: the webpage ad, or listing, the bidding mechanism, the buyer/seller communication forum, testimonials (feedback), and payment procedures.

The auction service provides all the "busy" stuff...you just provide the "something to sell".

> Now, once you've got the basics underway,
> how do you get higher prices for your stuff?

> The Photographic Effect. When an auction
> has an accompanying descriptive photograph,
> the final bid price is an average of 11.3%
> higher than similar items without pictures.

I very rarely even look at a listing if it doesn't have a picture. I'm surprised the percentage wasn't higher than 11.3%.

------

That was a very interesting article. Thank you for pointing it out, Dien.

JDB


The Quickest and Easiest Way to Make Money on the Net

A Question for Dien-
 

Dien:

What kinds of products are you selling with success? Do you do this as part of selling "chattel"? Just curious because I've messed around a bit with ebay, but no real blockbuster success.

Thanks,

Tim

Does anyone have recommendations for online auction management software or web sites?
 

> Dien:

> What kinds of products are you selling with
> success? Do you do this as part of selling
> "chattel"? Just curious because
> I've messed around a bit with ebay, but no
> real blockbuster success.

Hi Tim,

I'm mainly doing "chattel".... I like to resell new liquidated stock. But you have to do your research first on places like ebay, to look at past auctions to get an idea how much you can sell something for. Then, see if you can find a cheap enough source for it. I've found that I can buy liquidated stock and resell it online for a profit. I personally like electronics the best....

Recently, I've been looking around for some software or a web site to help me with managing my online auctions. (Until recently, I did everything "by hand.") I've been trying the free "Auction Submit" software, which seems to work well, however I also want to try other options..... Does anyone have any recommendations?

- Dien Rice

Re: Does anyone have recommendations for online auction management software or web sites?
 

I can't help with your software, but I DO have another question for you.

I've never sold on ebay, so this might be kind of elementary. Nevertheless . . .

If I have an item to sell, and a buyer who wants it, how is the transaction handled? Do they pay first, then you ship?

Who handles the money, Ebay?

Mary

Here's how I set up my own online auctions....
 

Hi Mary!

> I've never sold on ebay, so this might be
> kind of elementary. Nevertheless . . .

> If I have an item to sell, and a buyer who
> wants it, how is the transaction handled? Do
> they pay first, then you ship?

> Who handles the money, Ebay?

Ebay does have a method now of handling it all, I think it's called Billpoint. However, I like to use Paypal ( www.paypal.com ). It can be very handy to have a Paypal account if you sell ANYTHING online - and it's free to join too. You can arrange it so that Paypal can pay the funds directly into your bank account. (No worrying about checks lost in the mail.)

I always get paid first before I ship, and I personally keep in close touch with the buyer. So when I receive their payment after the auction closes, I send them an email confirming it, and when I ship I also send them an email at the same time letting them know that it's on its way. The reason why is that I figure that many people can be a quite hesitant about sending strange people their money online, so I do my best to make their fears go away. I also like to ship as fast as possible....

Mary, you should try it. Just try selling one thing around the house if you like, for experience, or go out and buy something inexpensive, just for the experience of selling it.

I usually sell with a no reserve auction, starting the price at the very LEAST I'm willing to accept for it. I also find out shipping charges before-hand, and include the shipping as a separate charge, which I mention in the auction listing. If you look at some of the auctions on ebay, you will see what I mean.

If you want to know how to "design" your auction, here's a very easy method which works.

For example, let's say you wanted to sell a second hand sweater. (People DO buy second-hand clothing on ebay.)

The first thing I would do is search through the auctions, finding items similar to the ones I wanted to sell. I would search through the CLOSED auctions - you can do this on ebay by first doing a regular search, then click on "Show Completed Items". Then you can see which items are selling well, and which are not. I'd try to find an auction where they are selling something similar to yours, where they got several bids and seemed to get a good price for it. I would ignore anything which got no bids, or which only sold for a lousy price.

Then, I'd use one of the successful auctions as a model for the layout of my auction. It's the essence of using a successful model to base your auction upon.

This method does work.... Human nature tends to (more or less) stay the same, so a particular auction layout which worked well a couple weeks ago will probably still work now.

So, in essence, find good examples of success, then model your activities on what's already PROVEN to work. It's a shortcut to having a successful online auction, and while you can't eliminate trial-and-error completely, you can reduce it so you can become successful as fast as possible. :)

I tend to think of ebay as mostly a large online flea market.... But it's evolving beyond that. If you search around, you will see that as well as usual flea-market type items, people are also selling luxury cars, houses, and even privately-owned islands on ebay!!!

I hope that helps.... If you have any other questions, please let me know. :)

- Dien

Re: Thanks, that helps a great deal.
 

I've got a 5 month old laptop that I'm not using as I thought I would. (I'm addicted to the click and feel of my genuine IBM keyboard, circa '92.)

I'm gonna give it a try.

Mary

Re: Thanks, that helps a great deal.
 

> I've got a 5 month old laptop that I'm not
> using as I thought I would. (I'm addicted to
> the click and feel of my genuine IBM
> keyboard, circa '92.)

> I'm gonna give it a try.

Hi Mary,

Sounds good. :) Yes, definitely find a "model of success" first, which might also give you an idea of what kind of price you can expect to get for it.... Find someone who has successfully sold the same model of laptop as yours, and also look at what kind of shipping, payment methods, etc. which they use. :)

By the way, keep in mind the factors mentioned in my earlier post.... You will definitely want a photo, especially if you are selling an expensive item like a laptop. A real photo will help it sell for a higher price. If you start selling things online regularly, it could help to eventually invest in a digital camera (if you don't have one already, or if you can't borrow one).

Good luck! :)

- Dien

Thanks Dien! (DNO)
 

Re: Does anyone have recommendations for online auction management software or web sites?
 

Dien -

> Recently, I've been looking around for some
> software or a web site to help me with
> managing my online auctions. (Until
> recently, I did everything "by
> hand.") I've been trying the free
> " Auction Submit " software, which
> seems to work well, however I also want to
> try other options..... Does anyone have any
> recommendations?

I was actually working on an application of this very sort over a year ago for another marketer. I haven't heard from that individual in forever. However, since I was under an NDA with her, I don't think it would be right morally or legally to divulge anything else about it. I can tell you this. There are others out there. Two I can think of, (don't know if they still exist), are Auction Watch and Auction Ferret.

BTW, our application was going to blow them all away. But I guess she lost interest.

Rick Smith, "The Net Guerrilla"


The Online Home for All Guerrilla Product Developers