Are you finding that auction after auction fails to attract any
bidders or buyers? It happens to the best of us sometimes - take
a good look at these things to see if any of them could be
making your bidders avoid you.
The starting price was too high: People don't want to have to
make a high bid before anyone else has - you should always start
your auctions low and let the bidders bid them up.
The fixed price is too high: If you're just selling with Buy it
Now, then of course your items won't sell if they're too
expensive. Try reducing the price a little each time the item
fails to sell.
No picture: Most buyers are reluctant to bid on something
without a picture, and that goes even more for high-value items.
Think of it from the buyer's point-of-view: would you want to
bid on an item when you've no idea what it looks like?
You had a reserve: Reserve prices scare away buyers like you
wouldn't believe, not to mention costing a percentage of your
final sale price. Avoid them like the plague.
Bad spelling and grammar: If your titles are spelled wrongly,
then no-one will find your auctions. If your descriptions are
incoherent, then no-one will know what you're talking about.
Always run your text through a spelling and grammar checker
before you put it up on eBay.
Too much for shipping: You might be expecting people to pay more
for shipping than they're prepared to. Give them a few cheaper
options that will take longer, or use cheaper materials.
Negative feedback: If you got negative feedback on your last
transaction, expect things to be slow for a while. Try selling
cheap things for a while to get your account back in good
standing.
Nasty terms: Don't write things all over your auction like "I
will only accept returns in PERFECT condition" or "Serious
bidders only, no timewasters!!" This is entirely unnecessary and
just makes you look difficult to deal with.
No PayPal: Many buyers simply avoid any seller who doesn't
accept PayPal as a payment method - they can't be bothered with
the hassle of anything else. Even if you don't like PayPal, you
should accept it if you want to business on eBay.
The items were bad. You will have to accept that there are some
items no-one wants - perhaps they were hyped to begin with, but
now people had heard that they're useless and stopped buying.
Before you come to this conclusion, though, check everything
else you can, and check if anyone else is managing to sell it.
If you're sure, try to return the items, and buy in some new
stock.
When selling on eBay is so much trouble, you might start to
wonder: should I just go and sell my stuff somewhere else? In
the next email, we'll take a look at the various alternatives to
eBay that have sprung up over the years.
About the author:
Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from
Nashville, TN. Visit
http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more
great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online
auctions.
