Feature: Become an Ebay expert

The easy sell
Now you’re ready to sell in earnest, but don’t rush in and just plonk your item on the site. Preparation and research yield better results. You may find it helpful to click the Sell link to open the listing designer to follow some of our tips.

One of the first options when setting up a listing is the type of auction. Two choices are offered: ‘Sell at an online auction’ or ‘Sell at a fixed price’.

Online auctions make up the majority of Ebay transactions, with visitors to the site bidding against each other until the auction ends, usually over five or seven days.

If you choose an auction, Ebay will offer you the choice to set a reserve price as well as a starting price – if the bidding doesn’t hit the minimum price you set, the auction is cancelled and you still pay the insertion fee.

Fees start at 15p and rise to £3 depending on the starting or reserve price that has been set. A second fee applies to auctions where the item is sold. See for Ebay’s fees in full here.

Fixed-price auctions offer visitors the chance to snaffle the item straight away, although normal bidding beneath the fixed price can continue if the starting price of the item is lower than its fixed price.

It’s often used by people who take advantage of Ebay to run small, low-overhead businesses and such auctions have a bright ‘Buy it now’ logo next to them. But in the true spirit of a free market, Ebay has now introduced a good old-fashioned haggling tool.

Bidders on fixed-price auctions can use the ‘Best offer’ button to submit a lower bid that the seller is free to accept or reject – more on that later.

To qualify for the fixed-price format, you will need a feedback rating of 10 or more to list single items, or 30 or more to list multiple items. Giving Ebay a direct debit for fee collection when registering also qualifies you for the format.

The final auction type you may offer is a Dutch auction, where multiple and identical items are listed in the same lot. Instead of selling at a fixed price, visitors bid on the quantity of items they want and the price they’re prepared to pay. A full guide to Dutch auctions can be found here.

Snoop for profit
Always check the competition; look at how other similar items are being traded on the site. Click the Buy link at the top of the home page to start a search by keyword.

As an example, consider the sale of a vase. When PCW typed ‘vase’ into the search field and hit Enter, Ebay displayed 46 separate categories of goods, including pottery, porcelain, collectables, stoneware, antiquities and dolls’ house miniatures.

Most buyers use this method to track down what they’re after, so choosing the right category is key. Spend some time browsing through the categories that seem to best match your item and make a note of the category titles.

It is possible to choose two categories, but the fee charged to list the item on the site then doubles.

Look at listings for items in categories and note what other sellers have chosen to highlight. It’s important to check as many as you have time for, as you’ll most likely encounter listings from hobbyists, specialist collectors and online shops that will have plenty of experience of selling items similar to yours.

The key things to look out for are the main title that appears for each item in the search page once a buyer has selected a category, the price and the description.

Like the façade of a shop or a newspaper headline, the title is your first hard sell; a good title will propel an item up the listings in a search and draw a potential buyer’s eye to it in the list.

In PCW’s search for a vase, we found ‘pretty little vase’, ‘brown vase’ and the slightly more helpful ‘Ltd edition Chokin plate from 1983 & small Chokin vase’. The latter indicates at a single stroke three pieces of information that distinguish it from the crowd and highlight it to a potential collector.

Given the vast array of items sold on Ebay, we can’t give concrete guidance on what to include in the main title, but consider adding brand names, model numbers, year of build, names by which an item is popularly known (as opposed to its rightful name), size, weight and pattern.

You have 31 characters to work with – use them well. For more impact, consider paying an extra 35p to add a 55-word subtitle.

Buyers also have the option to search for items by category and description, so that the text used to describe the item in detail is referenced. A random search through Ebay listings will establish that not everyone is a gifted writer; there’s no need to be and in fact many people make the mistake of trying too hard. We say keep it simple.

Write the description in a word processor before even starting the listing process on Ebay. Say what it is, describe its appearance, be clear about any flaws or blemishes (as you are required to under the Sale of Goods Act).

But go further and state, depending on what’s appropriate for the item, what the item could be used for, how a buyer might benefit from owning this specific item. Don’t reach for the thesaurus or spend hours composing purple prose. Be straight and to the point.

Always use the spelling and grammar tools and, wherever possible, ask someone else to read the description to ensure it makes sense. Badly composed listings full of errors give the appearance of an amateur and fail to inspire confidence.

Many items benefit from a second opinion, and online reviews give you a way to link from a listing to an independent opinion. This method is useful when selling electrical items, old games, music and video.

Just include the URL in the description, stating where the link goes and when the review was written. For CDs and DVDs, Ebay offers users the opportunity to write their own reviews, so if you’re selling such an item, look there for a suitable link to include in your description.