Power Selling Tips for Maximizing eBay Income and Profits

I’ve been selling on eBay since its very first days… when one could view all items on just five screens (and most of them were Pez dispensers). Over the years, I’ve honed a strategy that maximizes the success of my sales… in the percentage of items that actually sell, the money and profits that they bring in, and the ratings that I receive from customers. As a result, I’m a top-rated seller (with five stars in every category), and my items often sell for much more than comparable pieces sold by others. So the tips in this (rather long) hub work quite well!

Note, I never sell enough items to make an eBay Store practical. Most of my auctions come from my toy and camera collections, from things that my wife and I bought when we were antiques dealers, and from our ongoing basement cleanouts. And rather than focus on quantity, I strive for quality (and maximum profit) in every listing. You can too, regardless of how many items you sell… Here’s how:

(1) Buy low… Sell higher.

The old stock-market adage “Buy low… Sell high” holds true on eBay too. The best things to sell on eBay are ones that you obtained for free or purchased for less money than you can expect to make online. This is why antique dealers (at least the most successful ones) specialize. They become familiar with values in their fields, and know when they see a true bargain.

Collectors too should know the value of what they own. And after suitable time has passed, even items purchased at “market” years ago can generate profits now. If you’re unsure about the salability of your items, simply lurk on eBay for a while, and see how similar pieces have fared in the Completed auctions list.

(2) Sell by auction, not “Buy it Now.”

Personally, I sell only through 7-day auctions (never “Buy it Now”). “Buy-it-Now” makes it far too easy to either under-price items (and receive less than one could) or more commonly (based on what I see on eBay) to over-price them and risk not selling at all. eBay is a global online marketplace, so I believe it’s best to use its auction format, and let bidders around the world define how much money the market will pay in head-to-head competition.

But you may prefer “Buy-it-Now,” and that’s fine. You can still apply these techniques to improve the rate at which your items sell and boost the income you receive for them. Just don't fall into the trap of thinking that "Buy-it-Now" will help you get unrealistically high prices. It won't! Just today, I spotted several sellers on eBay who are asking more than $400 for "vintage" KayPro computers that have auctioned for at most $160 in the past. They probably won't sell.

But also try not to overreach in your auctions! Another fellow I saw keeps trying to sell his vintage KayPro with a Starting Bid of ... wait for it... $35,000! Most people come to eBay for bargains. And even the $400 "Buy-it-Now" KayPros have a better chance of selling than the $35,000 one that's up for auction (again).

(3) Load item titles with value terms.

Squeeze as many of an item’s important selling points into its title as possible:

• If the fact that an item is mint-in-box is a selling point, then be sure to fit “MIB” in the title, and put “mint-in-box” in the description. (This lets buyers find it under either the full term or the abbreviation.) And if the item’s also mint in a sealed box, then try to get “MIsealedB” in the title!
• If it’s important, get the word “unused” in the title.
• If it’s (say) an original Transformers toy, be sure to put “Gen-1” in the title (and also tell people it’s an original (and not a re-issue) in the description. For Transformers collectors, this is crucial… and every collectable category has similar terms that draw bids like crazy.
• If an auction lot includes more than just the main item, say “plus extras” or “+ extras” in the title, and show them in both your photo(s) and the item description.

You get the idea. Whatever your knowledge or research (see below) indicates are an item’s greatest selling points, squeeze them in the title as creatively as you can. Buyers will be more interested in an item labeled “Gen-1 Transformers Jetfire MIsealedB” than in a similar one that's simply called “Transformers jet.”

(4) Say as much as you can about your items.

Go overboard here. The more details you give about an item, its condition, and its selling points, the fewer emails you’ll have to answer during the auction, the easier the item will sell, the more money you’ll receive, and the less likely the buyer will be to want a refund.

For example, let’s say that I’m selling a Canon FT-QL film camera at the same time that someone else is selling the very same thing. My description explains the camera controls, describes their quirks, gives condition assessments, and lists and describes all accessories, while the other person says only “Old camera… see pictures… email with questions.” Who do you think buyers (who usually can’t touch or test the item) will patronize? Who would you? Would you even expect the lazy seller to answer your questions helpfully?

This kind of completeness and honesty has helped me sell many things for higher-than-normal prices… even when identical pieces were selling at the same time. Your proper selling goal isn’t to offload stuff with the least effort, but instead to help buyers make educated purchases.

(5) Research your items well.

Research is key to writing profitable eBay titles and descriptions. If you already know something about your item, you may still need to find out more. Search for similar pieces in eBay’s Active and Completed auction lists. See what their sellers say about the items, their positive selling points, and condition issues. Also sort eBay’s Completed items by “Price: highest first” and pay attention to the descriptions and selling categories for the top-earners. This can be very useful intelligence when you post!

But what if you know nothing about your item? No problem! Search and scan eBay’s Active and Completed listings for similar pieces, to see if any of their photos look like yours. If they do, their write-ups may again give you useful data and leads for further Google research. Google searches also provide valuable links to related Google Images. (These can be a gold mine when your text-based searches aren't helpful.) Scroll down through Google Images results to see if anything looks similar. If it does, click the image, and its source page will open… offering still more valuable data for your eBay write-up. By doing this, you can easily go from knowing nothing about an item to knowing everything about it… within minutes.

And then write your eBay description based on your research. But please use your own words… don’t plagiarize!

(6) Minimize eBay fees.

A great way to maximize your profits is to minimize the money you pay for eBay fees. The biggest of these (the “Final Value Fee”) isn’t controllable. But many fees are. Those that I minimize (or avoid) include:

• Insertion Fees— Regardless of how much an item might go for, I never set a starting price above $9.99. This usually holds my Insertion Fee to $.25 (or less), and encourages people to bid (especially on potentially valuable pieces, which begin their auctions as real bargains). NOTE: I’ve never been stung by this strategy!
• Reserve Price Fees— I’ll only incur this fee if I paid a lot for an item and don’t want to take a loss.
• Subtitles and Bold Titles— Like almost everyone these days, I search eBay using keywords. So every item in my search results is of interest, and bold titles don’t draw my eye. Since bold titles don’t grab me when I buy, I don’t pay extra for them when I sell.
• Listing Designer— I never use.
• Final Value Fees on Shipping— These new fees may be unavoidable, but you can still minimize them. Before posting an item, pre-package it and weigh it on a kitchen (or bathroom) scale (depending on how heavy it is). And before posting it, research the package’s shipping options through eBay's "Research Rates" link on the listing page. Then select the lowest-cost option as the first shipping method when you list the item … with a more expensive (but faster) option available if the buyer prefers.
  
  For example, if a package weighs less than 4 pounds, you (and the buyer) may be better off if you choose USPS Parcel Post as the item’s first domestic shipping option and Priority Mail as the pricier (but faster) alternate. Similarly, an item weighing less than 4 pounds could probably ship overseas for less via USPS International First Class (with International Priority as the pricier but faster alternate). Then, if the buyer wisely selects the cheaper option, their cost (and your eBay shipping fee) will be reduced.

(7) But pay for eBay extras when they make sense.

They may costs a little more, but I sometimes pay for these eBay “extras”:

• List in 2 Categories— If my research tells me that comparable items have sold for the highest amounts in more than one category, I’ll go for it!
• International Site Visibility— For an extra dime, this is often worth it. For example, more of the film-camera equipment that I sell seems to go to Asian and European buyers than to American, so I’ll give eBay the dime to expand a camera’s international market.
• Picture Hosting Fees— Many of your items will be fine with the one good close-up photo that you can post for free. But sometimes (as when selling camera systems), you need to show more images. In this case, you can still minimize your eBay hosting fees by using Photoshop (or GIMP) to combine up to four reasonably sized photos in a single JPEG montage! This lets you display up to four images for free… or up to eight images for the price of two ($.15). (NOTE: I’ve been able to post montages up to about 3000 x 4000 pixels in size before eBay’s system has balked.)
• And I always recommend paying eBay’s Gallery Plus fee, so that buyers can view enlarged images in their search results. Sometimes a little extra income in eBay’s pocket will pad yours even more!

(8) Time your posts.

Unless holidays or vacations get in the way, I usually post in mid-weekend (late Saturday or early Sunday). This gives people (at least in the U.S.) a chance to start seeing my items during one weekend, and to watch them and bid like crazy when they are home the following weekend.

(9) Watch your competition.

The last thing to do before posting an item is to search eBay’s Active listings for similar pieces. Sort the results by “Time: ending soonest,” and move down through the pages until you come to the items that would be ending around the same time as yours. These are your item’s competition. Are any of them identical or perhaps even better then yours? If so, you may want to hold off a day or two. Are any of them identical but posted with unrealistically high “Buy-it-Now” prices? If so, go ahead and post yours … an auction usually has the advantage over “Buy-it-Nows.”

(10) During your auctions, answer questions.

When you receive questions about your items, answer them as quickly as possible … even if it takes more research. (Don’t pack and seal items until their auctions close… so that they’ll still be at hand if needed.) And if a question and answer might help other bidders, be sure to click eBay’s checkbox to add them to the item page.

But if someone asks a question that you can’t answer, just say so on your item page AND ask other people if they can answer. If some nice soul does, add their information to the page as well. This lets eBay’s global community add their expertise to your listings. And it works!

(11) Pack well and ship promptly.

After payment for an item clears, pack it well, ship as soon as possible, mark it on eBay as “Shipped,” and let the buyer know it’s on the way. They’ll appreciate it.

(12) Leave appropriate feedback.

Amazingly, eBay sellers can only leave positive feedback (or no feedback at all) about buyers. In my opinion, this helps to hide problematic buying records from sellers. (I recently had to file an “eBay Non-Payment Case” against a buyer with a 100% positive rating.) So regrettably, the best you can do for your fellow sellers is to post no feedback (and file an eBay case) if a buyer doesn’t pay.

But, when someone does send their money quickly (hopefully via PayPal), add a nice thank-you note to their feedback as soon as their payment clears. This lets other sellers know that (as far as you’ve seen) the buyer is trustworthy.

(13) Get a PayPal account.

PayPal makes so many things about buying and selling on the web SO easy and secure. If you don’t have an account yet, get one! Sure, you’ll pay some PayPal fees, but the convenience and the automatic credit-card handling are worth it.

(14) Communicate, communicate, communicate!

When an item ships, send the buyer an eBay message to let them know. And stay in touch with them as much as necessary until they receive their package.

You may have to go “above and beyond” at times. I recently had to re-address a package that couldn’t ship to its Canadian buyer due to a postal strike up north. Fortunately, the buyer also had a U.S. address… and sending him the item’s Priority Mail tracking number also helped him know when to cross the border and pick it up.

And in another case, I twice filed a request trough the USPS International Query Center to help a buyer find out why their camera equipment was being held by their own country’s customs agents. The buyer and I must have exchanged 20 messages about that shipment!

All of this may sound like a lot of work. But it becomes fast and instinctive. These guidelines will help to boost your eBay profits and rocket your seller ratings to five stars all around. And they work: I once sold an original, mint-in-sealed-box, Gen-1 Transformers Jetfire toy for $1600… the same set that others had sold on eBay for “only” $900… and the same set that currently commands only $93 on Amazon. It happens often.

So remember: Laziness kills sales… but attention to details brings happy customers and money in your pockets!