.Auction Selling Online - Choose a Topic

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There are many tools and sites that can be used when selling online. Ebay is one of the most popular sites used for auction selling online, but I must stress not to limit your business to only one storefront. I recommend MASTERING EBAY first before expanding to other sites such as Yahoo Auctions, Amazon Auctions, ubid.com, ioffer.com, your private website and so forth.
I use eBay as the example in my illustrations below for simplicity purposes only.

Sniping   Sniping is a very effect way of winning an auction. Sniping is a means to which a buyer places a high bid at the closing seconds of the auction-style listing.  The disadvantage is you only have one shot at the item. An example would be something like this:

• Lets say Bob is selling a beautiful print for a starting price of say $1.00.  Now there is only two minutes left in the auction and the highest bid is at $9.50. You believe the print is worth $20.00,  but of course you would like to get it for as cheap as possible. So this is where sniping comes in. You will wait until their is ten seconds left on the auction (remember internet connection speeds vary widely, someone with dial-up will have to bid sooner then someone that has cable or DSL service) and place your maximum bid, in this case $20.00.  By the time you have placed your bid there should literally be only seconds left on the auction, therefore giving no one a chance to up the bid.

You may think this is illegal or unethical, but its not. It happens everyday on eBay.  All bids that are placed before the auction ends, even at the last second are considered valid bids.  If this has happened to you in the past, a good way to avoid it would be to consider what you would be willing to pay for an item and then place that price on the auction. An example would be:

• Bob has another beautiful print for sale. He is also starting this auction at $1.00.  To you, this print is worth $25.00 but again, you would like to get it as cheap as possible. Now there is already a bid for $4.50 and there is still two days left to bid on the auction. You place your $25.00 bid and move on to surfing eBay some more.  What happens with this auction is that your $25.00 bid just knocked the $4.50 out and raised it with you as the top bidder for $5.00. Now, two days have gone by and a sniper has come across this auction. He/she really wants this print. So in the closing seconds places a $15.00 bid figuring they will be the winners. Well the auction closes, they lose because you still have a larger bid at $25.00, but the auction selling price only got raised to $15.25.

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Auction Timing

TIMING IS EVERYTHING!

Like most old sayings, the adage that timing is everything is indeed true. As an online auction seller, timing your auctions is critical--it can literally make or break a sale. But what is the best day of the week to list or to end an auction? How long should an auction run? And what is the best time of day to end the auction? These are the types of questions you'll be thinking about more often, as you become a more experienced and more ambitious eBay seller.  An eBay ad generally gets the most attention on its first day posted, and in the hours before the auction ends.  I have found there are certain really optimal times to begin and end an auction. Such as, if you are selling an item that would appeal to the overnight or early morning crowd, by all means list it then.  In my experience Saturday and Sunday afternoons have the heaviest viewer traffic on eBay.  I would suggest that you post your auction on a Saturday or Sunday between the hours of noon and 3:00 p.m.  Prime time viewing hits its peak between 3-4:00 p.m.   Allow it to run a seven day course so that it ends during these same high exposure viewing hours. 

But before listing your ad, you will need to decide which day you want your auction to end (this in turn will dictate your auction's beginning day). Auction sites typically offer several choices for auction length; most range from three to ten days. Remember: If an auction is too long, it might get lost in the shuffle, whereas if it's too short (three or five days, for example), it might not generate any steam and disappear before the action starts.  In general, it is best to let auctions run for at least a week (unless you are selling multiples with Buy it Now, then spending $.10 for three more days is worth it). Granted, this can be a long wait for sellers who want to close a deal, but by having an auction encompass a full seven days you'll potentially reach people who browse the Internet and auction sites only on certain days of the week.

More importantly, the listing will run during a weekend, when Internet traffic is generally at it's peak. Running a short auction that doesn't encompass a weekend can hurt your chances of finding bidders. Some sellers prefer the ten-day option; that way, if they list on a Thursday evening, their auction will be listed during two weekends.  Although opinions vary, Sunday is generally considered to be the best day to end an auction. If you start and end an auction on a Sunday, you'll get a full week and a full weekend's worth of exposure. Again, Saturdays and Sundays tend to bring out more users (not everyone has the luxury of surfing the Web while at work during the week).  Fridays can be a particularly bad day to end an auction because you don't get that weekend surge. Also, people who take three-day weekends are away from their computers on Fridays and Saturdays.

By ending an auction on a Sunday, though, you can still attract people who have been away for most of the weekend but go online when they get home on Sunday afternoon or evening. Ending auctions on a holiday weekend can be a different story; some sellers avoid closing on holiday weekends because people are out of town for longer periods of time.  Keep in mind that the best day might depend on the kind of client base you're targeting.  Some sellers will say that starting and ending an auction in the morning is preferable because people can see it when they arrive at work (also, the listing process might go more quickly because site traffic will be lower).  However, evenings, or prime time, typically work the best. Buyers might occasionally check out eBay at work, but they're more likely to browse seriously and place their bids while they are at home during the evening or on the weekends. 

Be sure that you consider time zone differences as well when determining when to place your auction. Try to close your auction at a time when people on the East Coast are still up and people from the West Coast are just getting home from work (6 p.m. to 8 p.m. PT).  Remember that these are just general guidelines and you will need to do a little research and a little trial and error to find out what is best for you and the items you will be selling.

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Second chance Offer (SCO)

Second chance offers are an excellent way to generate additional revenue without having to pay for additional listing charges.

Example:

Let's say you are selling rubber chickens, and you have tons of them.  If you submit each of them with their own listing you are going to flood the market and drive your overall value fee down. So to prevent that, and to sell multiples quickly, you will list one rubber chicken (normal auction not buy now) for your minimum cost of say $10.00. Now, you know that these lovely rubber chickens normally get bid up to around $20.00 per Chick. Lets say after the auction closed they did get bid up to $20.00, and 11 different people each bidding one dollar apart from each other bid on them. What you do now is sell the first bird to the guy that bid the most. Next, you will offer a SCO to the second highest bidder and so on and so on.

This is how the breakdown of the auction looks:

As you can see this is a neat way to generate huge profits and move lots of inventory while keeping costs to a minimum.

SCO also works that if your original item did not sale, you can relist the item and if it does sell the second time eBay will refund your listing fee.

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Shipping Methods

Before you sell, know the way that the item will be shipped. Explain the means in your auction, that way there will be no confusion after the sale as to how it will ship or how much it will cost you or the buyer. 

Some sellers like to add a hefty shipping/handling charge onto their item. This can drive sales away if you charge the moon for an item that they know would normally ship for  $2.00.

If you use Calculated Shipping Rates, a shipping calculator will be inserted into your listing. Shipping rates will also be calculated when your buyer pays. Here's how it works:

1. Enter basic shipping information when you list your item, such as weight and shipping service.

2. Buyer calculates shipping rates - on your listing, the buyer will see a shipping calculator to calculate the correct shipping price.

3. Buyer pays - when the buyer pays, the rates will be calculated automatically based on the shipping address.

Step 1: Enter Shipping Information

• Weight of the item. Select the total weight of the item, box, and any packing materials.

• Package Size. You can usually categorize a shipment as a "package." But if you're shipping letters, large or heavy packages.

• Irregular or unusual. For irregularly shaped packages or packages containing certain materials.

• Domestic shipping service. Select from a list of services from UPS or U.S. Postal Service, such as UPS Ground or USPS Priority Mail. You can offer up to 3 domestic shipping services for the item. 

• International shipping service. You can offer up to 3 international shipping services for the item. For each service offered, you can specify a list of available locations.

• Seller zip code. Enter the zip code you'll be shipping from.

• Packaging & Handling Fee. Enter an amount to be added to the shipping cost for any packaging & handling fee. It will not be shown separately to buyers.

• Insurance. Select your option. Insurance will be calculated automatically based on the item price. UPS insurance is automatically included up to $100, so for UPS shipments just specify the option in case your item sells for over $100.

Step 2: Buyer Calculates Rates
When you use Calculated Shipping Rates, a shipping calculator will appear in the "Shipping and payment Details" area. When the buyer enters a ZIP Code or selects a country, the shipping calculator automatically determines the shipping rate based on the information you specified for the listing. Only the shipping service you selected will be shown. Any packaging and handling fees will be included in the shipping charge, they will not be shown to buyers.

Step 3: Buyer Pays
When the buyer pays, rates will be calculated automatically based on the shipping address. The rates are calculated during the payment processes for all your payment methods, including PayPal. The buyer can select from the list of shipping services you offered.

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Selling and Shipping outside the U.S.

There is a whole world to sell to. By offering international shipping you can get an even bigger piece of the pie. Why limit yourself with only one geographic area.  The extra work and handling it takes to ship internationally is minimal compared to the sales you can generate from the additional markets.

Basically all that is required is that you fill out a "Customs Declaration" form. Then fill it out appropriately, listing what the item is, quantity, weight, value and then date and sign it.

Please make sure that you have a return address on your item. International shipping has strict guidelines.

Click here to go to eBay's International trading page. There they can explain in further detail the benefits to shipping internationally, they also provide a shipping calculator and a time in transit calculator to aid you further.

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Selling Tools and Upgrades

Auction123.com - eBay Motors Full Service Listing Specialists	Auction123.com is the largest "Full Service" listing company specializing exclusively on eBay Motors.
Auction Integration & Website Building Tool	IRUN offers a single place to manage both your webstore and eBay auctions for one low monthly price.
Bandi	Bandi provides solutions and tools to the Business And Industrial community.
CARad - Auction, Inventory, and Lead Management for Car Dealers	CARad is the fast, easy, and effective way to list your vehicle on eBay Motors.
Channel Advisor Professional	A comprehensive suite of online auction management tools that helps you sell more in less time.
Email Reply Manager Solution	Managing inbound emails and orders are easy to address when you use Reply Manager.
EzRez - Dynamic Packaging Travel Booking Engine	Dynamic packaging travel tools for resellers of travel components.
Infopia's - Configurator for eBay	Find It! Build It! Buy It! Infopia's Award-Winning Configurator for eBay is now available.
Liquidate Direct	Selling DVDs, CDs, Video Games, Books or VHS? Automate the entire process for increased profits.
Sportscard Auction Management	Auction management and tools optimized for sellers of trading cards. Storefront linked to eBay.
Vendio Sales Manager	The Sales Management solution that over 100,000 eBay sellers choose.
Zoovy Apparel & Jewelry Sellers Special Edition	A special edition of Zoovy's software specifically designed for apparel and jewelry sellers.
Zoovy Auction Sellers Special Edition	Zoovy provides all the tools required to list, sell and manage your eBay business.
Zoovy Media (BMMG) Sellers Special Edition	A special edition of Zoovy's software specifically designed for media (BMMG) sellers.
Zoovy PowerLister Edition	A special edition of Zoovy's software specifically designed for high volume sku-based sellers.
Drop Ship and Bulk Wholesale Product Sourcing	Drop Shippers, Bulk Wholesalers of 2,000,000 Products from 4,000 Brands that you can sell on eBay.
Product Sourcing and Drop Shipping	We drop ship a huge variety of wholesale products direct to your buyers. You sell ‘em, we mail ‘em!
Andale Suppliers Network	Find suppliers of merchandise across eBay categories-or find eBay sellers to sell your inventory to.
Zoovy Webstore Special Edition	Zoovy lets sellers build a webstore that automatically lists new products in their eBay Store.

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What's Hot

Find out which categories and products are hot, and where demand is outpacing supply. Check back often as this PDF file is updated frequently  .Hot Items by Category   (must have Adobe Acrobat reader).

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Non Paying Bidders

This will happen to you more than once. There are a few people out there that will bid on a auction and for whatever the reason will disappear from the face of the earth. Don't get discouraged, this is by far not the norm.

When you experience a non paying bidder the first thing to do is send out the emails. At least three spaced out 3-5 days apart will show that at least you are making a good faith attempt at trying to reach them. Second, is to alert eBay after you have decided that they do not intend to pay up. eBay will send them out another warning and possible suspension if this matter does not get cleared up. If by now it doesn't get resolved, eBay will issue you a credit for the auction. Make sure to leave appropriate feedback for this bidder so others can be warned of your misfortune.

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Writing that perfect ad

ATTENTION:  You must first get the readers attention. Picture him scanning the section of the eBay page in which your ad is listed. For him or her it is much like which ride at the amusement park to take next. Something about your ad must grab their attention, to direct their focus toward your product.

INTEREST:   The ad must have appeal. This is a good place to state the benefits or some attractive features of your product. Knowing the demographics of your readers or the category section your ad is placed in helps in understanding their interests. What benefits of your product or service is most likely to appeal to this group? Develop a mental picture of some of the customers who would come from this demographic group, and will buy your product. What kinds of jobs do they have, cars do they drive... are they young, old, single, married.  Having a mental picture of your audience is important when you want to understand their interests and know what benefits of your product you should spotlight.

DESIRE:   But appealing to their interest is not enough. The ad must then "further stimulate your reader." While interest can generally be obtained by the practical properties of your product, desire needs sparking by a more emotional reaction. Is there something about your product that will make them feel good, excited, confident, secure, hopeful or powerful? Think about what other emotions your product can ignite. Does your product appeal to a particular sense. Can the reader taste, hear, smell, see or hear your product. Realize that most actions which we take are sparked by desire and most desire is stimulated by feelings. We don't really desire money.

ACTION:   If your reader does not take action, then you are dead in the water. How do you get your reader to act? Believe it or not this is the simplest step. Simply use a directive. Psychologists tell us that when given a directive (unless obviously harmful) our first instinct is to comply. Turn to the person in the seat next to you, and in a slightly commanding voice say, "give me your pen for a minute"... chances are they will, and usually, without question, for no other reason than "you told them to." Don't say... "will you give me your pen for a minute" because now they have to think, and if they have to think they may refuse. In your ad simply say: "Bid Now", "email me for details", "go to our website" etc. If the first three ingredients (attention, interest, and desire) have been well done, and the reader is a qualified customer.... they will most likely take the action you direct them to take.

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Qualified:   The qualified ad is specific and includes more detail about the product you are selling. Some products lend themselves to qualified ad content better than others. Hair pieces for men is an example. If your product is particularly "person dependent" use this type. Qualified ads will receive the least response but more of the responses which are received will result in sales.

Partially Qualified:  The partially qualified ad offers a special benefit, such as money or self- improvement. The readers have some idea of what you are offering, but don't know the specifics. If they are interested and desire your product they will follow your directive and buy. If you know where a partially qualified ad response comes from, you may be able to tailor your response to increase the percent of resulting sales.

Blind:   Blind ads offer only a few details, they are short, and bring in the largest response. However, blind ads produce the lowest percentage of actual orders per response, they are often viewed just out of curiosity.

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Using Pictures in your Auction

Picture in your auction can and will greatly improve your chances of having a successful auction. There are various ways to get your photos onto the auction. We will be discussing the three most popular ways.

Digital cameras   Digital cameras are a godsend for the people that are moving a lot of merchandise, because they can take a picture and have it uploaded in seconds. The picture is already in it own digital format which takes away all that time needed to reformat.  Your camera will come with operating instructions on how to upload a picture to your computer.

Regular camera and scanners   If you do not have a digital camera you can still take pictures by using a regular camera. The disadvantage is that you will have to wait till the film is developed. Once developed you will then need to scan the image to get it into your computer for uploading. `

Digital imaging service  Most film developers nowadays offer to have your pictures printed onto a cd-rom disc or give you a web address to access your pictures. I would highly recommend either one, especially if you do not own a scanner.

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Tips on taking a good picture

Proper lighting  Don't leave your item in the dark. by adding simple lighting will enhance picture and bring out its full potential.

Backdrop  If the item is small, consider using a backdrop. Backdrops can be as simple as placing a sheet behind your object, or you can get real creative and make a shadowbox with your own personal lighting and backdrop. The idea is to eliminate background object which will put the real focus on your item.

Close up's  Crop your item as close to the cameras border frame as possible. You don't want to take a picture ten feet back from a small object such as a keychain. Get right up in its face so to speak.

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Picture services

Use eBay Picture Services eBay will store and display your pictures for your listings. You can pay for eBay Picture Services on a per picture, or subscription basis.

• Pay per picture - You can upload one or more pictures for each listing. Your first picture on each listing is free. Adding pictures and Supersize or Slideshow enhancements have additional fees.

• Picture manager subscription - Using Picture Manager, you can upload pictures as a group, store them indefinitely and add them to listing after listing. Picture Manager works with the Sell Your Item form and Selling Manager Pro, so you can quickly load your pictures into your listings.

• Host your picture elsewhere. Perhaps your Internet Service Provider (ISP) gives you some space on the Web where you can store your pictures. Or maybe you'd like to try out picture-hosting services like Pongo, Twaze, or PixHost. The Sell Your Item form has a field where you can enter the Web address (URL) of a picture stored on the Web. That picture will be displayed in your listing. To display more than one externally hosted picture on eBay, you'll have to use HTML in your listing.

Supersize your picture  Use Supersize to increase the size of your pictures by 300% and to provide buyers with a better view of your items! Supersize will increase the size of your pictures to 500w x 375h pixels directly on your item listing plus enable buyers to enlarge your photos even more – up to 800w x 600h. Price is only $0.75.

Picture Pack  Maximize your photo exposure with the Picture Pack. Get Gallery, Supersize and Picture Show plus up to 12 additional pictures (Save up to $1.40) Cost of Picture Pack
• $1.00 - Gallery, Supersize, Picture Show, and up to 6 additional pictures
• $1.50 - Gallery, Supersize, Picture Show and 7-12 additional pictures

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