A Newbie’s Guide to the Different Ways to Sell Things on eBay.

Over the years, eBay has developed a variety of different auction types, in an effort to give sellers more choices every time they sell things on eBay.

For each seller that doesn’t like the thought that his or her item may well sell for a far lower selling price than they would like, there is certainly another who wants to sell plenty of of a similar item quickly.

eBay makes an attempt to meet the needs of all tastes. Here is an overview of the different varieties of auctions and also their benefits for you when you sell things on eBay.

Regular Auction Listings

These are the basis of eBay, the auctions everyone should know: buyers bid, other people outbid them, they bid once more, and when it’s all over the winner will get the item. Easy. A Standard Auction listing might be a little more troublesome for buyers, when there is a reserve price.

Auction Listings with a reserve are generally for sellers who don’t want their items to go for under a certain price – a concept you may be aware of should you be accustomed to real auctions. They operate much like normal auctions on eBay, except that the bidder is informed if their bid doesn’t meet the reserve price you specify, and they are going to have to bid again if they would like the item.  In the event that no-one is willing to meet your price, then the auction finishes without a winner, and you keep the item.

Buy It Now Listings

Buy it Now listings can work in one of two ways. You can include a Buy it Now option to a normal auction, meaning that buyers can select either to bid normally or simply pay the asking price and skip the whole bidding process. Some sellers, though, now eliminate the auction process entirely and just list all their items with a fixed price. This lets you avoid all the difficulties with the auction format and just list your products based on how much you’d like them to sell for.  With Buy It Now listings you are also able to sell a number of the same item using a single listing. Bidders can enter how many they want and then simply click Buy it Now to buy them.

Not too long ago, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the ‘best offer’. This means that buyers can make contact with you in order to work out a price, which could be a great way to get rid of some extra items at a small discount. The only issue with reserve and fixed price auctions is that you have to pay a small extra fee to use these kinds of formats.

Generally, it is more advantageous to go with reserve auctions for higher-priced goods and fixed price auctions when selling lower-priced items – but don’t forget that you could combine the two formats.

Classified Listings

As you might expect, a Classified Ad on eBay is where you advertise basically as you would in a local newspaper. You advertise your product or service, state your selling price, and potential buyers get in touch with you directly and you handle the transaction by yourself.  Although quite different from the Auction and Buy It Now listings, with the volume of people searching on eBay every single day, the Classified Ad could be a really good technique for getting customers for your product if you’re happy handling them direct, however Classified Ads aren’t available in all categories.

Now that you know about the various ways to sell things on eBay, you are probably going to want to get your first listing up on eBay.