What's my Stuff Worth?

How to choose a starting price for your eBay auctions

This is a bit of a tough one, and I would like to start this post with the following disclaimer:

This post is intended to give you a guide to pricing your items, but each situation is unique and there are too many factors to be considered for anyone to give a right or wrong answers to this question!

Now, with that out of the way, let's get to it!

The first thing you always want to do is research.  Check out how much the item (or a similar item) you have is selling for at a regular store.  Next, go to eBay and check items that have sold recently.  Be sure to sort "Price: High to Low" because we want to make the High-End, not the Low-End!  Now, study the one that got the most money.

Here are the questions to ask yourself:

• Did this person use "Auction" or "Buy It Now" or a combination?
• If it was an Auction, what did he start the bidding off at?  How many bids came in and how many different people bid on the item?
• What day of the week and time did his auction end?
• Is this item really the same as yours?  Pay close attention to the condition and possibly the size.
• Is this Seller a "Power-Seller"?
• Would you be happy getting this amount for this item?

Risky but often most profitable
I have often found that starting my auction off at a really low dollar amount (usually 99 cents) will generate more traffic to my listing, start a bidding war, and I will get far more money for the item than I had originally dreamed possible!  But, of course, this is a gamble.  You may very well get 99 cents for your item.  This type works best when you are selling an item that you are certain is highly popular and will get a lot of attention!  See my post on creating amazing titles!  Also, if you choose to go with any type of auction, please consider the time of day and day of week that your auction will be ending.  I like my auctions to end on Sunday or Monday evening around 10:00 p.m. Eastern/7:00 p.m. Pacific.  I think this time allows more people to be in front of their computer competing for my items.

Safe Auctions
The safest way to do an auction listing is to start the item off at the least amount of money that you consider reasonable.  Keep in mind that starting the item out on the higher end will also cost you more in insertion fees and will generate less traffic.  I believe that it is better to just do "Buy It Now" if you are not sure about "Risky Auctions".  But it never hurts to try a "Safe Auction" first to see how it works out for you.  See:  http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html#if_auction

Buy It Now
Then we have the oh-so-popular "Buy It Now".  Buy it Now is great for buyers and sellers because, as a buyer, I don't have to worry about being out-bid, and for the seller, he does not have to worry about having his item be under-sold.  However, if you use "Buy It Now" to sell your items, you will want to make extra sure you are not over- or under-pricing.  It will probably take longer to sell your items this way, but try not to let that frustrate you.  If you have done your research, you will find the right buyer eventually.